Interviews Manufacturing

While at Intersolar Europe/ees Europe this week, we caught up with Detlef Neuhaus, CEO of the Dresden-headquartered Solarwatt who told us more about his company's strategy, as well as offering up some candid views on the industry.

PV Tech caught up with Sujoy Ghosh, country head, India, for US-based thin-film PV manufacturer and project developer First Solar, in the firm’s Delhi office to discuss signs of developers in India engaging in new module-buying strategies, the country’s lukewarm relationship with trackers, and what India’s real power demand looks like.

Module technologies tipped to enter the mainstream and the suitability of current testing methods were scrutinised at PV ModuleTech 2017. PV Tech caught up with Mark Ma, global marketing manager, DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions, to discuss these new innovations and methods of sequential testing.

The movement to 6-busbar module architectures and the emergence of multi-wire technology were key topics at PV ModuleTech 2017. PV Tech caught up with Franck Genonceau, business manager PV portfolio, at leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger, to look at what to expect in the next wave of mainstream module technologies.

Outsourcing in the various stages running up to module assembly versus having one’s entire supply chain in house was a major theme at PV ModuleTech 2017. PV Tech caught up with Nick Strevel, director, global technical sales, at vertically-integrated thin-film PV manufacturer First Solar, to discuss the benefits of having all in house production and the drivers for high expenditure in R&D.

With one month to go before the Solar and Off-Grid Renewables Southeast Asia conference in Bangkok, PV Tech caught up with Franck Constant, president of renewables and storage investment platform Constant Energy, to discuss the current state of solar in the largest Southeast Asian markets.

Chinese PV firm LONGi Solar, which is the subsidiary of LONGi Group, has become arguably the industry’s greatest advocate of monocrystalline solar. The company has puts its money where its mouth is with huge investment to increase its manufacturing capabilities. In the second part of an interview with Zhenguo Li, LONGi Group’s president, Mark Osborne discusses capacity expansions and R&D spending.

Chinese PV firm LONGi Solar, which is the subsidiary of LONGi Group, has become arguably the industry’s greatest advocate of monocrystalline solar. In the first installment of a two-part interview, Zhenguo Li, LONGi Group’s president, speaks with Mark Osborne about the concept of PV3.0 and where the industry is likely to head next.

Avinash Hiranandani, managing director, RenewSys India, discusses the production of 5-busbar (BB) solar PV cells in India and the potential ramifications of the anti-dumping petition recently filed by Indian manufacturers.

One of the key sessions at PV CellTech 2017 in Penang, Malaysia, on 14-15 March 2017, is on GW-cell expansions across Southeast Asia and India, and there is a powerful selection of speakers lined up here. PV-Tech spoke to Finlay Colville, the PV CellTech conference Chair, and head of market research at PV-Tech’s parent company Solar Media Ltd.

Solar PV manufacturers have been flooding into Malaysia, but its domestic solar deployment remains relatively modest. PV Tech caught up with Catherine Ridu, chief executive officer of the Malaysia Sustainable Development Authority (SEDA), to discuss the newly-launched net metering programme and what other policies could encourage solar deployment, as well as how to leverage the manufacturing boom for domestic solar gains.